It's been exactly one year since Fievel attacked this innocent bird.

He was too young to fly, and his mom wouldn't help him

once he got the scent of dog and human on his feathers.

So, we took him in, named him Miles, and fed him pot roast.

It was extremely difficult to find a place willing to accept him because he wasn't a "raptor"and, therefore, not deemed very important in our region. After a lot of phone calls and internet searches, we found a wonderful wildlife rehabilitation center willing to take him in, where he was greeted by dozens of other little fledgling robins who were injured or abandoned, too. The great people who run the center assured us that the injuries Fievel inflicted on Miles were not serious, and that he would make a full recovery before being released back into the wild.

I know that wild birds aren't meant to live with humans - it was the FIRST thing listed on every website I visited while he cried and chirped from his shoe box in the garage. But it was so hard to say goodbye to him. He only lived with us for 24 hours, but his innocence and resilience really pulled at my heartstrings.

I like to think that he recovered quickly and that he had a grand and triumphant return to the wild. I like to think that he made some friends in rehab who joined him on his journey back to our neighborhood, where he met a nice lady and settled down and built a nest near our house. And maybe, on a really nice day, he'll sit high atop a tree branch and crap on Fievel's head.